HISTORIC SUEYEY. 43 



elements — American Indian, African black, and white of Europe. Here is being 

 physically developed the most representative race of the human species, taken in 

 its entirety. In this respect what a contrast between this continent and North 

 America, M^here the Anglo-Saxon race has kept mainly aloof both from the redskins 

 and the blacks, thrusting them aside, and even exterminating them rather than 

 sully their racial purity by contact with lower elements. 



Historic Retrospect — The Hevoltjtion. 



For over two centuries after the prodigious and horrible romance of the Con- 

 quest, the South American populations may be said to have been overcome by a 

 heavy social and political sleep. Under the system of bondage imposed by the 

 Council of the Indies, tempered or aggravated at intervals by the caprice of the 

 viceroys, the natives and even the settlers of European origin ceased to have any 

 historic existence ; all intercourse with aliens involved confiscation of property and 

 capital punishment. As if by a sort of embryonic life, the movement of the 

 American nations was carried on, no longer on the surface, but in the depths of 

 society, where was accomplished the transformation of hostile races into a com- 

 pact nationality. Spaniards and Quichuas, Portuguese, Africans and Guarani 

 were preparing for their second birth as South Americans. But meanwhile silence 

 reigned supreme, jealously guarded from interruption b}^ their rulers. The sub- 

 mission of the aborigines seemed absolute, and a force of 2,000 men sufficed 

 for the Spanish Government to maintain an atrociously despotic administration 

 over all those multitudes of enslaved peoples. 



In such a vast region as South America, destitute of easy communications, and 

 inhabited by peoples of diverse speech and origin, insurrections could not be 

 organised for combined and sudden action. The partial and isolated struggles for 

 independence were even necessarily attended and followed by reactionary move- 

 ments. In Peru the first blow struck for emancipation, so far from being of a 

 bold and resolute character, was, on the contrary, disguised under the form of a 

 pretext for a " legitimist " restoration. In the revolt of 1780 the leader of the 

 insurgents was a descendant of the Incas named Tupac Amaru, like the last 

 sovereign of that race. But he was soon vanquished, and, like him also, perished 

 on the gallows after the massacre of his followers. 



The first Brazilian rising was inspired by a feeling of patriotism, its object 

 being the expulsion of the Dutch from Pernambuco. After seven years of san- 

 guinary conflicts it achieved its purpose, the insurgents storming the Batavian 

 fortifications in the year 1634. Men of all Brazilian races, Indians, negroes and 

 whites, had taken part in the struggle, and Fernandez Vieira, generally regarded 

 as the hero of the war, was a mulatto. Later the negro slaves rose against their 

 masters, and even founded in the interior a few independent republics, which 

 enjoyed an ephemeral existence. Then came in 1798 the first attempt at 

 political independence, led by Xavier, better known by the name of Tiradentes. 



But the great South American revolution was heralded by a series of petty 

 revolts, breaking out now in one place, now in another, all suppressed in their 



